Two titles in one week for Evie
It has been seven amazing days for New Zealand’s Evie.
After becoming the first ever Impact Pro Wrestling Women’s Champion last Saturday by beating Britenay and Megan-Kate in a triple threat match, she has added another title to her cabinet by capturing the PWWA Interim Championship at today’s Call To Arms event in Casula, Australia, defeating Jessie McKay in the tournament final. The Auckland native made it to today’s main event by defeating her BFF Megan-Kate in the quarter-finals, then seeing off Kellie Skater in a rematch from last September’s PWWA event.
According to the running commentary being tweeted by our friends at NHB Girls, the match started with a technical display, but broke down into a fight when both women agreed to let everything fly – and fly they did, with Evie managing to score a big hit on McKay with a top rope dive to the outside. Back in the ring, the frenetic pace continued with Jessie looking for a submission victory but was frustrated when her opponent made it to the ropes. Fighting back, Evie scored with her TTYL finisher (Go To Sleep) but was shocked when McKay managed to kick out at two for a heart-stopping near-fall. McKay dug deep, applied her octopus stretch to try and get the tap out, but Evie broke free, and nailed a second TTYL for the pinfall to claim the title. (more…)
Ringbelles Roundup (21 August 2012) – Too many promotions, BLOW, Caylee Turner & more
It’s a jungle out there.
Take a look at the Upcoming section – most specifically the section for October and November. In the space of a month, you have three iPPV shows (SHINE will be one of them, most probably on October 19), as well as the SHIMMER weekend, nCw Femmes Fatales and Pro-Wrestling: EVE. In a four week gap, there are hugely advertised women’s cards taking place across the western hemisphere. If you expand the boundaries a bit to include the start of October, there is the new UKWW/WAWW venture in the UK, the debut of REINA x World in the US, PWWA in Australia and Joshi4Hope in Japan. No doubt, if you’re a fan of women’s wrestling, you certainly have a lot of stuff to choose from. Unfortunately, it may be too much for a minority in a minority like women’s wrestling certainly is.
On August 8, Pro-Wrestling: EVE promoter Dann Read tweeted his thoughts on the matter: “Its been obv for a while but I’m now feeling that the women’s scene in the US is becoming over saturated to a potentially harmful level.”
The first apparent victim of this rapidly expanding calendar was Ohio-based Independent Women’s Internet Wrestling, which shut up shop last week after one – albeit well received – show in July which crowned Cherry Bomb as its first champion. In a message posted on its Facebook page last week, it said; “As you know there is SHIMMER and WSU and Femmes Fatales which provide women’s wrestling action as well as Pro Wrestling Eve in England. And now there are two new promotions Shine and Blow which are going to be having regular and affordable iPPV’s featuring top talent.
“I see little reason in attempting to compete with a fraction of the resources. Even on a hobby promoting level it’s too expensive and too little return to pursue any further.” (more…)
One down, one to go for Evie – now with video
When we spoke to Evie a week ago, she could barely contain her excitement at possibly becoming the first ever Impact Pro Wrestling Women’s Champion, progressing to the final against Britenay and headlining the Destiny show last Saturday night. She was keen on winning the belt in her home promotion, and always having the moniker of being the first Women’s Champion in the promotion – an achievement that nobody can take away from her. However, the one on one contest between the two of them was turned upside down just moments before the bell would ring…
Destiny opened with Commissioner Dion McCracken addressing the crowd as well as the competitors. He told Evie and Britenay that this match would be determined under a one on one contest, and then proceeded to ban ‘Handsome’ Danny Jacobs from ringside for the match later on, much to the delight of the sold out crowd. Evie’s BFF Megan-Kate was also ruled out, so there would be no excuses, and a rightful winner would be decided. Someone else had alternative plans though, and it would result in the Commissioner’s credibility being undermined, the two competitors being thrown a curve-ball, and a strong friendship being put to the test in the quest for the gold. (more…)
Fight Like A Girl: Evie
New Zealand’s Evie has a busy couple of weeks ahead of her. After having never competed for a championship in her career, the Auckland native could become a double champion by the end of the month by winning two tournaments. First up is the final of the Impact Pro Wrestling Women’s Title tourney on Saturday, which will crown the first ever champion when she takes on Britenay. Following that a week later is her match against Jessie McKay to crown a PWWA Interim Champion.
As part of this edition of Fight Like A Girl, Evie discusses how nervous she gets before big matches, the women’s wrestling scene in New Zealand, the road to both finals, prospects for the future, and which title (if any) means more to her.
(left click on picture to stream, right click and “save as” to download)
Keep up with Evie at her and Megan-Kate’s Facebook, as well as on Twitter
Read more about IPW Destiny, and check out more about PWA Call To Arms
Ringbelles Roundup (17 July 2012)
I’ve been concerned about the future of Pro Wrestling: EVE, as each show seemed to be becoming a stand-alone production. EVE v Ice Ribbon was a great weekend of action, but didn’t really offer much indication on what would happen next, barring the win streaks of Alpha Female and Nikki Storm. At No Man’s Land in February, there was only one advertised match, which was the title match with Jenny Sjodin defending against Alpha, and that ended inconclusively. Meanwhile in the Queen of the Ring tournament which was set up after the plans to crown new Tag Team Champions fell though, Nikki won, which only reminded us that she was the next contender, and didn’t offer much to speculate about for the next show. Then Alpha won the belt on a non-EVE show, which – while it was the right move – would have been best on the No Man’s Land card. In addition, attendances were less than stellar, which was a shame – doubly so for the EVE v Ice Ribbon shows, which featured some spectacular matches.
However, last Saturday, things slotted into place very nicely. (more…)
Ringbelles Roundup (19 June 2012)
Beyond Wrestling is the new owner of Women Superstars Uncensored. In truth, we heard about Beyond being interested in purchasing WSU about two weeks ago and thought it was a curious name to be in the running.
The model for Beyond is for having wrestling matches presented in front of an audience of fellow wrestlers, which creates a different sort of atmosphere. Only recently has Beyond started regularly running shows in front of regular fans – in fact, it was running a show in conjunction with St Louis Anarchy on Saturday when the announcement was made on WSU’s Uncensored Rumble V iPPV. Excerpts of the statement read out by commentator (as well as Beyond’s Director of Talent Relations and Director of Online Communications) Jon Harder include, “there will be a stronger online presence… all shows will be shot in high definition… future events will be available as video on demand streams and MP4 downloads in addition to the current DVD and iPPV releases.”
Three extra statements were released by Beyond yesterday on its website – most of which were buzz statements with no real substance to them (though in fairness, what more is there to say at the moment) – with the main points being a reassurance for WSU fans there will be no drastic changes to the product, though the logo has changed, as you can see, and the promotion’s website will be overhauled, which will be useful, as there is a lot going on when it comes to the front page at the moment. It also mentions the WSU will run shows in the Tri-State area, with the hope of expanding into new markets by the end of the year.
Let’s go through some of these points. (more…)
Blog: Madison Eagles assesses the PWWA Interim Title tournament to date, plus exclusive injury update
Let’s get the big question sorted before I continue with the most awesomest blog in the world…
As it currently stands my knee has made some general improvements without the use of surgery, which I am very happy about… BUT I am still having the nagging issues of not being able to run, jump or kneel without running into some serious pain. To look at the progress I have made (from previously not being able to walk without a full leg brace and the use of a crutch), I think im doing fairly well.
This may lead to the question of “Why not just have surgery?”, and the answer for me is fairly simple, if I am slowly (VERY slowly) making improvements without the use of a surgeon then I don’t want to risk the chance that surgery possibly could make it worse OR not help it at all, in which case I would be set back even further in my recovery process.
But for all of you wondering if this is the end of my career you should probably be more focused on wondering what the date of my return to the ring will be. So in conclusion, to make an informed guess to answer this it would have to be that I’ll be back in the ring at the end of this year.
Well, now that that Elephant is out of the room lets start talking some fun stuff. (more…)
Ringbelles Roundup (3 April 2012)
On Sunday at WrestleMania, WWE Divas Champion Beth Phoenix was pinned by Maria Menounos in the tag team match featuring Menounos and Kelly Kelly against Phoenix and Eve Torres. A showbiz TV host who it was announced had two cracked ribs and stress fractures in her feet; a woman who has had no more than a month’s total wrestling training in her life; a non-wrestler pinned the Divas Champion on the promotion’s biggest show of the year.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that Menounos has pinned Phoenix – she had got a three-count against her with a sunset flip on last December’s Tribute To The Troops show. Now, I have no problem with that – or her victory on Raw in an 8 woman tag in 2009, as they are throwaway matches on shows that mean nothing in the grand scheme. However, for the woman who is supposed to represent the best in the division to be defeated by a TV show host makes a mockery of Phoenix, the title and women’s wrestling as a whole. WrestleMania is the show that casual fans may watch once a year, and they see that? It doesn’t sit well with me. (more…)
PWWA to crown Interim Champion
At the tail end of last month Australian wrestling promotion PWWA announced on its Facebook page that it would be holding a tournament, though no more details were revealed. However, another update has been released in the last few hours shedding a little more light on the issue, and relates to the injury of PWWA’s reigning champion, Madison Eagles.
According to the promotion’s official website, Eagles has not made a defence of the title in more than a year -the last recorded one being against KC Cassidy on January 7, 2011. The title lay dormant by her side while she relocated to the US for six months, where she wrestled the March SHIMMER tapings, and earned a spot on the CHIKARA roster after strong showings against Sara Del Rey, Daizee Haze and Manami Toyota. However, things came unstuck for the then-SHIMMER Champ, as she suffered an injured shoulder in a car accident, and was forced to withdraw from CHIKARA and return back to her native Australia for treatment.
She successfully defended the SHIMMER belt against Jessie McKay and Nicole Matthews in September while still dealing with her shoulder, and then wrestled five matches in three days at October’s SHIMMER tapings, dropping the promotion’s title to Cheerleader Melissa in the main event of volume 44. However, a week later, things went from bad to worse when Eagles suffered a knee injury during training, which could be career ending. With no firm date for a recovery, the decision has been made to have an Interim PWWA Champion – much like in the Ultimate Fighting Championship when the reigning titleholder cannot make a scheduled defence – while we wait and see if the winner of the 2011 PWI Female Fifty can return to the ring. If Eagles does return it would presumably lead to a unification match at some point down the road.
DVD Review: PWWA (3 September 2011)
Despite only taking place a month ago, the Pro Wrestling Women’s Alliance event which took place on September 3 was available for purchase at the recent SHIMMER: Women Athletes tapings in Berwyn, IL last weekend. Obviously, we had to pick up a copy to see the event, which was headlined by the first SHIMMER title defence outside of the United States, with then-Champion (still feels weird to think of her in that way) Madison Eagles defending against longtime rival/partner Jessie McKay, and former SHIMMER Tag Team Champion Nicole Matthews, who was making her first trip Down Under.
Eagles had been away from the promotion and its parent company the PWA for around six months to live in the US, making it onto the CHIKARA roster, but had to withdraw and return to Australia for treatment for an injured shoulder which she suffered in a car accident back in April. She had wrestled sporadically in North America since then – once in CHIKARA and another time at nCw Femmes Fatales VI in Canada in June where she defeated our latest Women Of Wrestling Podcast guest Courtney Rush. Upon her return to Australia, Eagles (who also holds the PWWA Championship) turned heel, attacking a newly-turned babyface McKay, who was trying to win the PWWA title which KC Cassidy had claimed as her own in Eagles’ absence. As it turned out, the belt was reclaimed by Eagles and she and Cassidy let things slide, even teaming together for Madison’s return match in her home country on August 8 against McKay and Shazza McKenzie.
The SHIMMER title match at PWWA was a big talking point ahead of time. Would Eagles be dropping the belt due to injury, and if so, to whom? How hurt was she? Would she be able to go at full-speed during the match considering she had only wrestled as few as three matches since the injury occurred four months previously? With that level of intrigue, it became a real possibility that the SHIMMER Championship would change hands in Liverpool, New South Wales. Obviously, we know she retained the title, but what participation did she have in the match? Let’s find out… (more…)
PWWA results: Eagles retains the SHIMMER title
The first defence of the SHIMMER Championship outside of the US has seen titleholder Madison Eagles retain the belt over her two challengers, Nicole Matthews and Jessie McKay (who spoke to us about the match on the most recent Women Of Wrestling Podcast).
There had been a lot of intrigue surrounding the match, including whether Eagles’ recent injury issues would be a factor in this contest, and whether this was an occasion for there to be a new champion while Madison rehabbed her damaged shoulder. As it turns out, Eagles recovery is not as bad as originally feared, and she will roll into SHIMMER’s DVD tapings in Berwyn, IL on October 1 and 2 as the champion.
Last night, parent company the Pro Wrestling Alliance held its own card in Liverpool, with a taster of the PWWA show the following evening. Matthews defeated Shazza McKenzie in the semi-main, while in an eight woman tag, McKay, Evie, Megan Kate & Kellyanne English defeated Eagles, Kellie Skater, JPE & Britenay.
Thanks to PWA’s official Twitter, we bring you the results: (more…)
Ringbelles Retro: A look at PWWA’s new names
So did you know there was wrestling in New Zealand? I’d never even thought about it, but it stands to reason that there would be. If there are women wrestling in Bolivia, anything is possible.
As part of its relaunch, Australian promotion PWWA is expanding its pool of talent to include grapplers not just from Australasia – as Madison Eagles revealed to us at the start of this month – but also from elsewhere in the Commonweath – Nicole Matthews will make her debut in Liverpool, NSW on September 3.
The three Kiwi names are all regulars with New Zealand promotion Impact Pro Wrestling. Evie won New Zealand PWI Female of the Year in 2009 and is one of the fan favourites in the promotion; the same can be said for Megan-Kate, who debuted in IPW more recently, and the two have formed an alliance – hell, the two share a single profile on Facebook.
On the flip side is Britenay, who sits on the heel side but is still a talented grappler, having won not only Best Female but Best Debutant in the 2008 NZPWI Awards. (more…)
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